Starting over. For some, it's a blessing. For others, it's heartbreaking. For Kalamazoo, Michigan's Mulligan, it's old hat.

The members of Mulligan have had their share of fresh starts. Growing up in the small town of Tekonsha, MI, the threesome of Jakob Goheen, Derek Feltner, and Dustin Smith have had quite an experience.The three started a band for a talent show in junior high school, then played separately in other bands, then together again, and so on. Finally, after years of false starts, they formed Mulligan.

Their music is abrasive, yet harmonious. It's lawless, and at times comfortable. But the band's quiet melodies and ethereal guitar sound can't even begin to sugar-coat the raw emotion and last grasps that dominate Goheen's songwriting. For him, the music is his diary of starting over. Starting over from a listless time of lost love and insecurity.

The eleven tracks from the band's first full length album 'The Tides of Blackheart Bay' are a collection of heartbroken mutterings and puzzled screams for help, comfort, or even at their best, more pain. The songs tell a story of desire, affliction, and quiet anger that ends in reluctant resolution. And as many endings become, a new beginning.